Automation steps

Steps are what a run does after its trigger fires. This page lists every step by context with its settings and rules, explains how steps connect into branches, and shows what happens when a step fails.

Add and configure steps

On the automation’s Editor tab (available while the automation is a draft or paused):

• Add a step: select the plus button below the last step, or below Yes or No on a condition. Search the picker or pick from Actions.
• Configure a step: select it on the canvas. Its settings open in a side panel. Once the step has run, a Stats tab appears next to Configure.
• Remove a step: select it and select Delete step in the side panel.
• Save: select Save. Steps with problems are highlighted with an error count.

Steps by context

Step settings can include placeholders such as {{contact.first_name}} or {{payload.object.to}}, filled in for each run. See Data available to steps.

Send email

Sends an email built from one of your templates.

Rules:

• The template is rendered with Temple. In Contact automations, the contact’s fields are available directly, so {{first_name}}, {{email}} and {{custom_fields.plan}} work. Every context also has {{contact.*}}, {{payload.*}} and {{meta.*}}. Campaign merge tags such as {{cf.plan}} and {{unsubscribe_url}} aren’t filled in.
• The sender must be on a verified domain. The From override or the template’s sender must use a domain verified in the workspace. Save checks overrides, and the step fails at run time if the domain isn’t verified.
• A subject and content are required, from the template or the overrides.
• Each email costs 1 credit, on top of the 3 credits for the run.
• It doesn’t check subscriptions. The email is sent even if the contact unsubscribed from your audiences. Suppressed addresses are still blocked at delivery, and sandbox workspaces can only send to members’ account addresses.
• No unsubscribe link or loads and clicks. Automation emails don’t get List-Unsubscribe headers, and loads and clicks aren’t tracked.

The step’s Stats follow each email it sent through Accepted and Delivered, and count bounces, failures and complaints.

Wait / Delay

Pauses the run before the next step.

While a run waits, it stays Running and the wait step shows as waiting. Pausing the automation doesn’t interrupt waiting runs.

Condition (If/Else)

Sends the run down the Yes branch when the rules match, or the No branch when they don’t.

• Rules: a field, an operator and a value, combined with All rules match or Any rule matches. The operators are the same as for trigger filters.
• Fields: in Contact automations, Email, First name, Last name and your custom fields. In Email automations, the fields of the trigger’s event. With the API, field can be any path, with the prefixes contact., email., payload. and meta..
• Branches: add the next step under Yes, No or both. A branch with no step ends the run there.

Add to audience

Contact context. Subscribes the run’s contact to the Audience you choose. If the contact had unsubscribed from it, it’s subscribed again. The step fails if the audience has reached its subscriber limit. It doesn’t start Added to audience automations.

Remove from audience

Contact context. Turns the contact’s subscription to the Audience off. The contact stays on the audience as an unsubscribed subscriber, unlike Remove from audience in the dashboard, which deletes the membership.

Edit contact

Contact context. Sets one or more fields on the run’s contact. Add a row per field, with a Field name and a Value:

Values can use placeholders, for example {{payload.object.audience.name}}. The change doesn’t send a contact.updated event, so it doesn’t start Contact updated automations or webhooks.

Forward email

Email and Event contexts. Sends a copy of the run’s email, with its original content and attachments, to the address in Forward to. The subject becomes “Fwd: “ plus the original subject. The email must come from a verified sending domain in the workspace, and each forward costs 1 credit. See Forward with automations.

Add to suppressions

Email and Event contexts. Adds an address to your suppression list with type recipient, which blocks all sending to it, and the Reason you enter (default automation). In Email automations, the address is the email’s recipient. In Event automations, set email with the API, for example {{payload.email}}. The step sends a suppression.created event.

Remove from suppressions

Email and Event contexts. Removes the address from the suppression list: the email’s recipient in Email automations, or email set with the API in Event automations.

Create contact

Email and Event contexts. Creates a contact and, if you pick an Audience (optional), subscribes it there.

• In Email automations, the contact is the email’s recipient address. For received emails, that’s the address the email was sent to. To create a contact for the sender instead, set email to {{email.mail_from}} with the API.
• In Event automations, set email and optionally first_name with the API.
• If the contact already exists, it’s kept as it is and only subscribed to the audience.
• The step doesn’t start Added to audience automations.

API-only steps

These steps can be added with the API but not in the dashboard editor yet. They work in every context.

{
  "key": "notify-crm",
  "type": "action",
  "action": "call_webhook",
  "config": {
    "url": "https://crm.acme.com/hooks/new-subscriber",
    "method": "POST",
    "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer crm_token" },
    "body": { "email": "{{contact.email}}", "source": "emailit" }
  }
}

Branches and connections

With the API, an automation is a list of steps, each with a unique key, and a list of connections from one step key to the next:

{
  "steps": [
    { "key": "trigger-1", "type": "trigger", "trigger": "contact.added_to_audience", "config": {} },
    { "key": "is-pro", "type": "action", "action": "condition", "config": {
      "filter": { "match": "all", "rules": [{ "field": "custom_fields.plan", "operator": "equals", "value": "pro" }] }
    } },
    { "key": "send-pro", "type": "action", "action": "send_email", "config": { "type": "template", "template_id": "welcome-pro" } },
    { "key": "send-free", "type": "action", "action": "send_email", "config": { "type": "template", "template_id": "welcome-free" } }
  ],
  "connections": [
    { "from": "trigger-1", "to": "is-pro", "branch": "default" },
    { "from": "is-pro", "to": "send-pro", "branch": "yes" },
    { "from": "is-pro", "to": "send-free", "branch": "no" }
  ]
}

• branch is default for a normal next step, yes or no after a condition, and a variant key after a random split.
• A condition only follows the branch it picked. A default connection out of a condition is never followed.
• A step with several outgoing connections on the same branch starts all of them, and the branches run side by side.
• Every step must be reachable from a trigger. In Contact and Email automations with several triggers, all triggers must connect to the same first step.
• Send steps and connections together when you update an automation. Steps whose keys don’t change keep their history and stats.

When a step fails

By default, a failed step fails the whole run, and the remaining steps don’t run. The error is saved on the step, and you can read it in the run’s details on the Runs tab. Set on_step_failure to skip in the automation’s settings with the API to let runs continue past failed steps instead.

See Runs and stats for how to find and fix failed runs.

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